Durand Jones & The Indications frontman Durand Jones will release his debut solo album, Wait Til I Get Over via Dead Oceans on May 5. Out today from Jones is the lead single from the "deeply personal" 11-track collection, "Lord Have Mercy," along with a Will Niava-directed video for the song.
The Hillaryville, Louisana native wrote much of the material on his first solo effort about his hometown, which was initially founded by eight former slaves via reparations. "Hometowns have a way of keeping a part of you," Durand Jones explained. "Each track is an arc quite literally grounded in the story, the feeling, and the sound of what it means to go home," noted press materials announcing the pending release of Wait Til I Get Over. The songs deal with the lifelong struggle Jones has between acknowledging his roots and wanting to move from a town that is "a tangle of contradictions."
Durand Jones assembled a band to record an album with a sound described as "reminiscent of Muscle Shoals" that included drummer Ben Lumsdaine, keyboardist Matt Romy, guitarist Drake Ritter and bassist Glenn Meyer. "The band would groove and jam," added Jones, "and I'd think 'Okay, it's in the pocket; I can jump in.' And we just did it."
The singer and one of the principal songwriters of Durand Jones & the Indications will bring his new LP on the road for appearances at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Mill Valley Music Festival as well as headlining gigs in Bloomington (Indiana), New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. See the list of dates and the "Lord Have Mercy" video below:
Niava (Zoo, Billie Eilish, H.E.R.) interspersed imagery of Louisiana swampland from both the 1920s and modern times to create the "Lord Have Mercy" video. The resulting visual documents the multi-generational challenges those from Hillaryville have endured.
"The interlude ends with my Grandmother telling us how she felt about Hillaryville back in the day," said Durand Jones. "Hillaryville is no longer a sanctuary town or 'place you'd most want to live'. Most people in my generation and younger dream of escaping a place like Hillaryville. And for many the dream never becomes something more. Life can find a way to keep you there if you will let it. I wanted to express this thought through sound in a raw, wild and raucous way. A build of a groove that feels like it is driving through a muddy swamp. Trapped."
Wait Til I Get Over Tracklist
01 - Gerri Marie 02 - The Place You'd Most Want To Live (Interlude) 03 - Lord Have Mercy 04 - Sadie 05 - I Want You 06 - Wait Til I Get Over 07 - That Feeling 08 - See It Through (Interlude) 09 - See It Through 10 - Someday We'll All Be Free (feat. Skypp) 11 - Letter To My 17 Year Old Self
